System and Method for Athlete Assessment and Team Selection

ABSTRACT

Subjective and objective assessment attributes and measurements related to athletes are captured in an athlete assessment database. Attributes can be entered and updated by at least one evaluator in the field to the athlete assessment database using a client/server software application and mobile client devices. Following capture of the assessment attributes to assessment attribute records in the athlete assessment database, at least one ranked listing of the athletes is created based on the captured assessment attribute data, for printing, display or further use. Captured assessment attributes with relation to the athletes in question can be averaged, normalized or otherwise manipulated. A drafting interface could be provided to allow for immediate or streamlined team selection in a league. The method enhances the speed and accuracy of team selection and athlete ranking processes, over current paper based processes.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 62/108,296, filed on Jan. 27, 2015, entitled “System and Method forAthlete Assessment and Team Selection” and Canadian Patent ApplicationNo.: 2879027, filed on Jan. 21, 2015, the contents of which are herebyfully incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE EMBODIMENTS

This invention is in the field of team sports coaching andadministration, and more specifically provides a system and method forthe comparative ranking and assessment of athletes in the assembly ofteams.

BACKGROUND OF THE EMBODIMENTS

One of the most time consuming and important tasks undertaken in theselection and fielding of a sports team is the assessment of athletesand selection of team members. This issue is the same in the selectionof any sport team, including a baseball team, soccer team, hockey team,football team or the like.

As a starting point in the selection of athletes for participation in asports team there are two categories of key performance indicators foran individual that would be considered by a coaching staff in terms ofselecting athletes for inclusion on the team. These are objective keyperformance indicators which might simply be objective or quantitativemeasurements of particular physical attributes of an athlete orquantitative measurements of performance in particular drills or skillstests.

Many traditional approaches to athletic assessment and forecasting havefocused on game statistics and other objective KPIs in part because ofthe simplicity of their capture. However, through past experience in thefield of athletic assessment and team selection in multiple sports it isbelieved that a more fulsome team selection result and athleticassessment is generated through a more thorough and subjectiveassessment and documentation of an athlete's physical performance andpotential for performance in a field situation.

The second category of KPIs which are useful from the perspective oftaking a deeper look at the potential performance of an athlete in ateam setting are to consider various subjective assessments of theathlete in terms of their performance in particular tests or exercisesas well as observations of their participation in team drills orscrimmage settings etc. Subjective KPIs, in terms of athleticassessment, are most often gathered by having the athletes in questionobserved by one or more qualified assessment judges or evaluators, whohave experience and training in terms of standardized measurement of thesubjective performance indications with respect to a particular athletein a particular sport. Incorporating these types of qualitativeassessments alongside or in place of only quantitative informationresults in ability to consider a more fulsome picture of each potentialteam member athlete, individually as well as in aggregate when a team isselected or built—for example certain qualitative as well asquantitative attributes of some athletes will be more important atparticular positions on a team than in others.

Typical prior art approaches to the assessment of athletes for potentialteam selection in sports are based on manual assessment by one or moreevaluators. The pool of athletes will be gathered together for one ormore tryout sessions, or measurements might be taken in the objectivecontext over time, and the evaluator or evaluators will observe thevarious athletes in participating in their drills or scrimmage etc. andmanually score each of their participation for capture and subsequentranking and scoring purposes. The manual scoring of the individualathletes in these types of settings is recorded on paper by theevaluator, for subsequent transcription and manipulation.

Where there is a larger pool of athletes to be assessed or where thereis a desire for an additional layer of objectivity in the assessmentprocess, multiple evaluators might score of the pool of athletes andthen the scores that they capture individually with respect to theirobservation of athletes participating in various assessment drills aregathered together and averaged or otherwise aggregated and scored forthe purpose of consideration of a ranked list of athletes, ranked byability in a particular skill or otherwise.

Evaluation or assessment scores which are captured in these prior artmethods on paper typically have as a follow-on aggregation step thegathering in of the paper score sheets filled out by each evaluator, andthe scores provided by each evaluator for each athlete on each KPI ormeasurement are added up and averaged, or transcribed into a chart or aspreadsheet or the like for additional use. This type of a traditionalprocess which is still widely used results in the need for significantcentral office help in the aggregation and assessment of the scores,once the physical assessment of the athletes in question has takenplace. It is time intensive, and the possibility of even data entryerrors when these various scores are transcribed together exists suchthat crosschecking and verification is also very important to ensurethat the scores which have been captured by individual evaluators areproperly transcribed into whatever follow-up averaging or scoring systemis used.

One of the additional limitations of the current paper-based approachesis the fact that centralized aggregation and transcription of the scoresinto a spreadsheet or other format is virtually mandatory if it isdesired to normalize the results across a number of evaluators orotherwise perform more complicated mathematical comparison andassessment of the athletes in question. If there were an alternateapproach to this type of an athlete assessment process which allowed fora streamlined central data entry process which would limit the amount ofredundant work to transcribe or reenter the manually captured resultsfrom individual evaluators of individual athlete assessments, this wouldundoubtedly be positively received in the realm of community andsemi-professional or even professional sport.

Considering as a single example, the assessment and selection of acommunity hockey league might include the conduct of individual skillsassessments of hundreds of hockey players, for eventual stratificationor division into tens of teams in the league. Either for the purpose ofassisting coaches in a draft process, or even if in some instances itwas desired to automatically select teams based on a ranked skillsmatrix, it can be seen that the manual capture of various subjective KPImeasurements with respect to hundreds of hockey players or athletes insome other similar sport and league, for manual central aggregation andmanipulation is in many ways a herculean task. This can also be furthercomplicated by the fact that many of these community leagues at least,even if not in semiprofessional and professional leagues, are run on anot for profit or volunteer basis and so if it is possible to minimizethe amount of back office help required, cost savings and processefficiencies can really be realized.

If it was possible to streamline the process to minimize the amount ofdata entry requirements it might also allow for assessment processes toincorporate additional athletic measurements or assessment KPIs, if theaddition of more assessments or calculations would not exponentiallyincrease the amount of back office assistance required to aggregate andrank the final scores.

Many coaches and evaluators in the sports world now use portablecomputing devices for various purposes on the field—for example tabletcomputers are often used to demonstrate plays, capture statistics andotherwise assist in the enhancement of the coaching experience for bothcoaches and athletes alike. The use of these types of devices already inthe field means that if there was a system of athletic assessment andevaluation which could incorporate the use of those devices to minimizemanual data capture in the athletic measurement of subjective KPIs, thiscould be well-received as well.

The presence of such devices for data capture purposes in the athleticassessment applications is an obvious benefit to an invention in thisarea, but also if it was possible in addition to providing the abilityto streamline the capture of assessment scores to also provide theability to using such a device view and manipulate the aggregatedinformation collected from athletic assessment processes this would alsobe beneficial.

Reliance upon subjective assessment of the performance of athletes bymultiple evaluators is believed to retain a very important place in theathletic evaluation and team selection process and it is believed thatif it was possible to provide an automated system in the place ofcurrent paper-based and manual data capture systems that this wouldrepresent a significant technical stride and be well-received inindustry.

SUMMARY OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides a quick and accurate means of collectingmetrics enabling sports team management to make better educatedselections and decisions in the selection of an athletic team from anavailable talent pool. The information captured may also be useful froman ongoing coaching perspective.

As outlined herein, the present invention comprises a novel athleteassessment method, which uses an athlete assessment database hosted on aserver operatively connected to a computer network to allow for theenhanced assessment, ranking and team selection of athletes in teamsports.

The athlete assessment database in all the embodiments outlined hereincomprises at least one project record which contains project parametersincluding details of assessment attributes to be captured in respect ofathletes in a particular athlete assessment project. Where the systemand method is to be used to administer or handle more than one assetassessment project, more than one project record would exist in thedatabase, with the project record corresponding to each of theassessment project.

In addition to at least one project record, the athlete assessmentdatabase also comprises a plurality of athlete records, each of which islinked to at least one project record and contains athlete particularscorresponding to an athlete. The athlete particulars could beidentifying information or other information related to the particularathlete, who is going to be assessed in the asset assessment project. Anathlete record could actually be linked to more than one project record,where particular athlete was being assessed in more than one athleteassessment project. All embodiments of the assessment database wouldalso comprise a plurality of assessment attribute records. Eachassessment attribute record is linked to at least one project record andto an athlete record and contains at least one captured assessmentattribute of the related athlete. As outlined in further detailthroughout this document, assessment attributes are measurements of theskill or other ability of a particular athlete in a sport, which areused for ranking and team selection purposes.

The athlete assessment method, which uses an athlete assessment databaseas outlined above, comprises the following steps in terms of theparticular athlete assessment project. The first step is the creationand population of the project record with the project parameters for theathlete assessment project in question within the athlete assessmentdatabase. In addition to the creation of a project record with respectto the athlete assessment project, an athlete record needs to be createdand populated with respect to each athlete to be assessed in the athleteassessment project—these athlete records would contain correspondingathlete particulars for each athlete.

At least one evaluator would capture and transmit assessment attributesfor athletes to the athlete assessment database by an evaluatorinterface served between the server and at least one client device overthe computer network. This could either be done by way of theproprietary software installed on a client device, or the server couldbe a Web server and the client devices could be wireless devices capableof browsing and/or interacting with content and software on theserver—both such approaches will be understood to those skilled in theart.

To make the system and method of the present invention as widelyavailable as possible is primarily contemplated that the client/serverweb methodology would be used, rather than the need to write and installa proprietary software on a wireless device or client device, althoughboth such approaches would be within the scope of our intended coverageherein.

Following the capture of assessment attributes for particular athlete orathletes via the evaluator interface on the client device by at leastone evaluator, and the subsequent transmission of those attributes tothe server, the captured assessment attributes will be stored inassessment attribute records in the athlete assessment database, eachlinked to their respective athlete record and to the related projectrecord.

Following the conclusion of the assessment stage of a particular projectin accordance with the method, the final step in the base of the methodis to display at least one assessment attribute of all of the athletesassociated with the effort assessment project to a user, based upon theassessment attribute records for the asset assessment project storedwithin the athlete assessment database. Many different types of staticor dynamic displays can be contemplated. Data could simply be sorted orcould be processed, normalized or further calculated in the presentationof a report, display or dashboard to users. All such approaches to thedisplay of the information, from the most simple to more complicatedapproaches and dashboards are all contemplated within the scope here.

As outlined above, the general method comprises displaying assembly ofassessment attribute information to one or more users following theconclusion of the assessment stage of a particular athlete assessmentproject. This display step could comprise generating at least one rankedlisting of the athletes in the athlete assessment project based uponthose assessed attribute records based on one or more of the assessmentattributes captured and stored in the database, or could be based uponanother calculation—again both such approaches are contemplated to bewithin the scope of the present invention.

The display of assessment attribute information to one or more userscould be done by a screen or display interface, the server or clientdevice, or the output of that information could also be rendered as aprinted or otherwise dispatched report or dashboard or the like.

It is specifically contemplated that the athlete assessment databasewill be stored on the server operatively connected to a computer networkin communication with the at least one client device required for dataentry thereto. In other cases, the server that is operatively connectedto network and to the at least one client device, for the purpose ofserving evaluator interface and receiving and storing transmissions ofcaptured assessment attribute information from client devices may notdirectly host the athlete assessment database and the athlete assessmentdatabase may be resident on or hosted by another computer that isoperatively connected thereto.

Many different types of client devices could be used to communicate withthe server in accordance with the method of the present invention. It isspecifically contemplated that the most useful types of client deviceswould be wireless devices capable of two-way network communication withthe server via the computer network—for example mobile telephones,tablets or laptop computers. Hardwired devices could also be usedalthough it will be understood to those skilled in the art that theadded commercial benefit of wireless device would enhance the likelycommercial acceptance of the method outlined herein.

The server would likely contain an assessment software programconfigured to execute the capture, storage and display of athleticassessment attributes to and from the athlete assessment database fromclient devices of evaluators the assessment software program itselfcould take many forms as outlined in further detail herein and any typeof an assessment software program which has the practical effect ofaccomplishing the method of the present invention is considered to bewithin the scope hero.

Client software on the at least one client device would communicate withthe evaluator interface and other server-side software components of theserver, in order to allow the viewing of athlete particulars fromathlete records in the database, and the data entries assessmentattribute information for storage to the athlete assessment databaseduring the assessment stage. Again as outlined above, the client devicemight include purpose built client software capable of communicatingwith the server and the remainder of the software the present inventionby the computer network, or the server may communicate with the clientdevice and the evaluator or other party operating same via a browserinterface. All such approaches are contemplated herein.

The evaluator interface which is presented to an evaluator on a clientdevice during the data entry stage of the method could show the athleteparticulars and provide the ability for viewing and data entry access tothe data of more than one athlete at the same time. Alternativelyinterface or display screen could provide access to only the data entryor profile of a single athlete at one time. All such approaches arecontemplated within the scope hereof. It is specifically contemplatedthat one or more athlete assessment projects could be administered inaccordance with the method and through one embodiment of the system ofthe present invention—a service bureau approach with more than oneproject record within the database is contemplated to be the most likelycommercially acceptable successful method. In cases with a number ofproject records is more than one, the evaluator interface could allow anevaluator to select the correct athlete assessment project and relateddata center reviewing and data entry.

The athlete particulars with respect to individual athletes which willbe saved in the athlete records in the athlete assessment database wouldlikely contain physical identification of an athlete, to easeidentification of the athlete during an assessment stage of a particularassessment project—for example uniform number, color or the like. Someor all of the athlete particulars from the corresponding athlete recordfor the athlete could be displayed to an evaluator during their use ofthe value for data entry purposes.

In a more elaborate embodiment of the system and method of the presentinvention the athlete assessment database could also include a pluralityof assessment template records, each of which comprises the necessaryproject parameters to allow for the systemized based upon preset systemsettings, whereby an operator could rapidly and consistently createmultiple project records for similar athlete assessment projects. Thiswould allow for the development of best practice assessment templatesand related assessment template records which could be offered by thevendor of the service and method of the present invention to clients whomay not all have the resources available to maintain, monitor andenhance their own templates.

Beyond providing a centrally managed template set or plurality ofassessment template records which the vendor of the system couldmaintain, it may also in certain other embodiments be desirable by aparticular customer using the system and method of the present inventionto create an assessment template record with respect to their preferredapproach to a repeated athlete assessment project within which vendortake, whereby they could upon development of their own templates save itfor reuse.

Finally as outlined with respect to certain embodiments of the method ofthe present invention, in addition to the fact that various types ofdata displays and reporting could be used at the tail end of the methodof the present invention, including the incorporation of a query andreporting module into the assessment software program itself, theathlete assessment method might also include a drafting step followingthe conclusion of the assessment step, whereby the number of athleteswhich are assessed in an assessment project is sufficient to populate aplurality of sports teams and following the conclusion of the assessmentstage of the method, the display of at least one assessment attributeall of the athletes associated with the athletic assessment project touser comprises displaying assessment attribute records for the athleteassessment project store within the athlete assessment database to atleast one coach for each of the sports teams, and then providing adrafting interface whereby the coaches of those sports teams couldassign particular athletes to particular sports teams by making aselection which will be transmitted back to the server and saved in thedatabase along with the remainder of the information from the athleticassessment project.

In addition to the asset assessment method of the present inventionthere is also disclosed a athlete assessment system for the conduct ofthe assessment method outlined. The athlete assessment system comprisesan athlete assessment database as outlined above, with the serverconnected to the athlete assessment database and to a computer networkby which the server can communicate with at least one client device.This system can facilitate the execution of the athlete assessmentmethod by, for a particular athlete assessment project, creating andpopulating a project record with the project parameters of theathleticism project within the asset assessment database; creating andpopulating an athlete record with corresponding athlete particulars foreach athlete in the athlete assessment project in the asset assessmentdatabase; and during the assessment stage of the athlete assessmentproject serving evaluator interface to the client device at least oneevaluator to enable data entry at the client device of assessmentattributes for athletes. Upon receipt of transmissions of assessmentattribute data from the client devices of evaluators, assessmentattribute records are created within the asset assessment database tostore same, each assessment attribute record being linked to theirrespective athlete record into the related project record. Finally, asoutlined with respect to the method outlined above, following conclusionof the assessment stage at least one assessment attribute of all theathletes associated with the athlete assessment project will bedisplayed to the user based upon the assessment attribute records forthe athlete assessment project stored within the athlete assessmentdatabase.

The system of the present invention would be capable of communicatingand operating with numerous types of client devices specificallycontemplated that the client devices which might be used to buildwireless devices capable of communicating with the server via thecomputer network.

One or more athlete assessment projects could be administeredsimultaneously in accordance with system of the present invention.

The system could be enhanced by providing a data set comprising aplurality of assessment template records in the database, which wouldallow for the system eyes selection creation of project records and theathlete assessment database based upon preset system settings. Asoutlined with respect to the method above, the athlete assessment systemof the present invention can also comprise the necessary software toconduct a drafting step following the conclusion of the assessment phaseof a particular athlete assessment project, whereby players who wereassessed could be assigned to a plurality of sports teams.

In addition to the system and method outlined herein, there is alsooutlined computer software for operation of the server to affect themethod of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, themost significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to thefigure number in which that element is first introduced.

FIG. 1 illustrates a sample of a prior art assessment scoresheet used ina manual athletic assessment and team selection method;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart demonstrating the basic steps in a manual priorart athlete assessment method, for comparative purposes;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart demonstrating the basic steps in one embodiment ofthe athlete assessment method of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing of the data structure of one embodiment ofan athlete assessment database in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic drawing of the data structure of anotherembodiment of an athlete assessment database in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of an athlete assessmentsystem in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic embodiment of the components of one embodiment ofa server in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the assessmentsoftware program of the present invention, demonstrating the varioussoftware subroutines which would be used to create, administer andoutput athletic attribute information in accordance with the system andmethod herein;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the components in one embodiment of aclient device of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a sample user input function selection screen display for aclient device in one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a sample user data entry screen display in one evaluatorinterface in accordance with the invention, whereby an evaluator couldenter assessment attribute values for storage to the athlete assessmentdatabase;

FIG. 12 is a sample screenshot of an alternate embodiment of anevaluator interface in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a sample screenshot of an alternate embodiment of anevaluator interface in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a sample screenshot of an alternate embodiment of anevaluator interface in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a sample screenshot of an alternate embodiment of anevaluator interface in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a sample screenshot of an alternate embodiment of anevaluator interface in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a sample report demonstrating data output from one embodimentof the athlete assessment system, showing data generated for theassessment attributes of a single athlete;

FIG. 18 is a sample of data output from the athlete assessment system,showing ranked data based on the captured assessment attributes of aplurality of athletes;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart demonstrating the steps in one embodiment of theprepopulation of the athlete assessment database with at least oneproject record, athlete records and in this case objective assessmentattributes in advance of the at least one evaluator capturing assessmentattribute data for assessment attribute records in the athleteassessment database;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart demonstrating the steps in one embodiment of thedetailed method of capture of assessment attribute information to anathlete assessment database in accordance with the athlete assessmentmethod;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart demonstrating the steps of one embodiment of theend user display component of the athlete assessment method;

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As outlined above the general focus of the present invention is toprovide an enhanced athlete assessment method and athlete assessmentsystem. By capturing one or more athletic assessment attributes inrelation to a plurality of athletes from at least one evaluator withrespect to an athlete's performance in an evaluation session to acentral database, enhanced reporting and ranking ability for thatinformation is provided and the amount of back office labour assistancerequired in this process is significantly reduced if not eliminatedaltogether. The method will allow for the generation of ranked listingsand data reporting for coaches or team admins selecting teams, as wellas providing the background metrics required for a drafting interface tofurther automate the selection of teams in a sports league. Athleticassessment attributes and methodology:

As outlined elsewhere herein, there are two types of athletic assessmentattributes which it might be desired to track and present to a coachingstaff in terms of ranking or selecting athletes for participation in asports team or sports league. These have been categorized as objectiveassessment attributes and subjective assessment attributes.

Objective assessment attributes in terms of an athletic assessment areintended to encompass any type of a measurement or score of someassessment attribute of an athlete which it was desired to reflect orconsider in an athlete assessment method which was not the subject ofany kind of subjective judgment by one or more evaluators. For examplethe time required by an athlete to run a particular distance, the amountof weight they could lift, or measurements of certain body orperformance tests are samples of some types of objective assessmentattributes which might be desired to be considered alongside or inconjunction with subjective assessment attributes in the assessment,ranking and selection of athletes for participation in sports teams.Typically these objective assessment attributes can be measured once, asindicated without the need for subjective judgment or assessment by anevaluator.

In the athlete assessment method contemplated herein, objectiveassessment attributes could be captured or gathered either directly fromathletes or by the assessment staff involved in the athlete assessmentmethod, and can be entered into the system in association with theprofile of a particular athlete and then used for the purpose ofreporting in the remainder of the method of the present invention.

The second type of athletic assessment attributes which are describedherein are subjective assessment attributes. These are athleticassessment attributes which would be captured by the application ofselective and subjective judgment criteria by at least one evaluator inobservation of a particular athletic performance by an athlete. Moreexhaustive athletic assessment routines quite often involve subjectiveassessment by at least one evaluator of the performance of one or moreathletes, and those subjective assessments are then captured forcomparative purposes. For example, the various types of subjectiveassessment attributes which might be captured are often captured inrelation to a scale—with a view to by using a scale standardize ornormalize the data to a degree in respect of multiple athletesconsidered—and the subjective judgments made by the at least oneevaluator in respect of that scale with respect to one or moresubjective assessment attributes are then captured for subsequentaggregation and scoring or ranking or selection purposes. Subjectiveassessment attributes might include any number of different types ofobservations by evaluators—for example an evaluator might have ascorecard of a number of different skills which it was desired toprovide marks or assessments of in respect of athletes and in respect ofeach of those skills, based upon the judgment of the evaluator, theymight select from a scale—for example assigning a score between one andfive or something along those lines—with respect to the ability of aparticular athlete with respect to a particular skill or quality—thistype of a subjective judgment and the assignment of a subjective scoreis a subjective assessment attribute for the purposes of the remainderof this application.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art of athletic assessmentthat there are virtually limitless types of both objective assessmentattributes and subjective assessment attributes which might be used inaccordance with the athlete assessment method and athlete assessmentsystem of the present invention. The athlete assessment system could bemodified to accommodate any type of such attributes and all suchapproaches are contemplated within the scope of the present invention.

Evaluators:

One of the key components of prior art manually oriented athleticassessment regimens, as well as still at the heart of the athleteassessment method of the present invention, are the actual humanevaluators who will view and evaluate the performance of athletes forthe purpose of assessing and assigning subjective assessment attributevalues. Typically what is done in an athlete assessment method such asis contemplated to be replaced by the method of the present invention isthat a templated number of athletic performance exercises or drills areexecuted by the athletes, and they are graded on their performance inthose drills by at least one evaluator.

The method of the present invention could be employed by a singleevaluator, or can also be employed in a case where multiple evaluatorswere each capturing scores on some or all of the subjective assessmentattribute of the athletes. In some cases multiple evaluators are usedand their scoring is averaged or otherwise normalized to come up with amost accurate or balanced subjective assessment attribute score for theathletes in question on each of the drills in question.

It is specifically contemplated that the athlete assessment methodherein can be practised either by a single evaluator, or can alsoencompass assessment of athletes by more than one evaluator. It mightalso be the case that a single evaluator performed more than oneassessment of the athlete over time, which we would treat as multipleassessments or evaluators as well for the purpose of understanding theapplication of the method of the present invention thereto.

The evaluators would typically be subject matter experts in the sport orathletic exercise being assessed. Typically where a plurality ofevaluators was to be used, they would have some understanding betweenthe group of them of the grading scale used for the various subjectiveassessment attributes to be scored and captured, so that they wouldmanually normalize things to a degree. This is also how things wouldhave been done in the past with manually based scoring regimes—in eithera prior art manual approach, or even in the method of the presentinvention, each of the plurality of evaluators would view theperformance of the athletes, and assign subjective assessment attributescores to the various exercises or drills or measurements that they areinstructed either by a manual card or electronic data capture athleteassessment system such as outlined herein to capture.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art of databaseprogramming that an athlete assessment system for the practice andimplementation of the present invention could be deployed which wouldeither optimize the approach and methodology for a single evaluator, orfor multiple evaluators. All such approaches are contemplated within thescope of the present invention.

PRIOR ART

For the purpose of fully comprehending the significant technical benefitof the present invention, we first demonstrate a basic prior art athleteassessment method, for the purpose of demonstrating the technicaldistinction and superiority of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows an extract of a prior art manual scoring sheet or aspreadsheet which can be used in the assessment or assessment ofathletes and team selection projects. A plurality of evaluators willreview the performance of various athletes in the set of drills orskills outlined in the scoresheet and will assign objective orsubjective attribute scores to them. There is shown an extract from amanual athlete assessment scoresheet, which is used to perform aassessment of an athlete for assessment and ranking or in team selectionexercises for team sports. A scoresheet would be filled out by at leastone evaluator with respect to each athlete who was participating in aparticular athletic assessment or evaluation exercise.

The first piece of information outlined on the scoresheet which can beseen are athlete particulars for the athlete in question. This mightjust be identifying information such as the name of the athlete, contactdetails, jersey number or the like. Basically this is the informationthat would be used to describe or identify the athlete who is ranked bythe scores indicated on the scoresheet.

The next item outlined on this sample of a manual athlete assessmentscoresheet are a plurality of objective assessment attributes. Objectiveassessment attributes are any type of a attribute which can bequantitatively or otherwise objectively measured with respect to anathlete—weights, measurements, times etc. Objective assessmentattributes form the first layer of assessment attribute informationwhich can be gathered with respect to athletes for the purposes ofassessing a group of athletes and selecting a sports team based on theirabilities, for participation in a particular organized team sport.

The third category of information outlined in the scoresheet, inaddition to the athlete particulars and objective assessment attributesare a plurality of subjective assessment attributes. The subjectiveassessment attributes are grades or subjective assessments of theabilities of the athlete in question, based upon a scale or apreselected and standardized marking strategy. Basically one or moreevaluators in reviewing the performance of the athletes in question whenfilling out the scoresheets will assign a subjective grade to theperformance of each athlete on their related scoresheet. Each evaluatorwill presumably exercise a standardized discretion in assigning scoresto individual athlete, such that the subjective assessment attributescores which are assigned to each athlete on their respective scoresheetby the same evaluator will be generated based on the same mental scaleand score. Where more than one evaluator is involved in the parallelassessment of the same group of athletes, each evaluator will be in alllikelihood trained to the standard that is selected for use across allof the scoresheets and all of the athletes by all of the evaluators.

Following the completion of the assessment of each athlete by theevaluators, a scoresheet would be in a completed state with respect toeach athlete's performance including indications of both their objectiveassessment attributes and subjective assessment attributes. The scoresheets would be aggregated, and the scores included therein would betranscribed into a centralized spreadsheet or the like for the purposeof seeing comparative marks provided by different evaluators and/oraveraging the outcomes etc.

To provide further background around the prior art methods of manualathlete assessment and evaluation for ranking and team selection weprovide a flowchart in FIG. 2 which outlines one embodiment of a priorart manual athlete assessment method, using a scoresheet such as isshown in FIG. 1. In this one prior art embodiment of a manually drivenathlete assessment method, step 2-1 shows the completion of the basicscoresheet information with respect to each athlete who is to beevaluated. The athlete particulars would typically be filled in on thescoresheet form for the purpose of identifying each athlete as thepaperwork was generated for use by the evaluators.

Shown at 2-2 is the gathering and completion of objective assessmentattribute information on the scoresheet with respect to an athlete.Objective assessment attribute information would typically only need tobe gathered once in respect of an athlete and subjective assessmentwould not be involved in that—as such, the collection of that type of aninformation feed would typically take place at the front end of atraining camp or assessment session or the like. Following thecompletion of that objective assessment attribute information on thescoresheet with respect to each athlete, a copy of these partiallycompleted score sheets would be made for each evaluator who was toparticipate in the subjective assessment and grading process.

The next portion of the athletic tryout or assessment session would beconducted, shown at 2-3—scrimmage, drills or the like, where theevaluators who were tasked with subjectively evaluating various athleticassessment attributes with respect to each athlete would observe theathlete and would assign those subjective assessment attribute grades toeach assessment attribute heading on the scoresheet, so that eachevaluator would complete their assessment scoresheet with respect toeach athlete.

Following the completion of the athletic tryout or observation and thecompletion of all of the assessment attribute information in the scoresheets with respect to each athlete, the score sheets would be collectedwith respect to each athlete from each evaluator—the collection orcollation of the actual forms is shown in step 2-4. The central or backoffice who had collected all of this information would then aggregatethe information typically by transcribing the individual scores providedby each evaluator into some type of a collated results report. Scoresmight be averaged or otherwise normalized with respect to the subjectiveassessment attributes. The completion of a collated results report, at2-5, would yield a document which could be used in basic terms for grouporiented assessment of the number of athletes who were viewed aspotential team members in the selection of a team or for other purposes.

A collated results report being prepared manually or on paper isproblematic from a number of perspectives, not the least of which isthat typically in order to resort that chart for the purpose of rankingindividual athletes in the group on multiple different athleticassessment attributes, the form might need to be manually regeneratedeach time. This is a significant limitation to the ability to use such asystem in the streamlined ranking, assessment and selection of athletes.

General Method Overview:

The athlete assessment method of the present invention uses aclient/server hardware and software system to collect objectiveassessment attributes and subjective assessment attributes pertaining toathletes within an athlete assessment project. The specific purpose forthis is typically to allow for analysis and ranking of various athletesin the selection of sports teams. From a high level, the methodcomprises the following steps in some basic embodiments.

In order to conduct the athlete assessment method of the presentinvention, an athlete assessment database is required. As outlinedelsewhere herein an athlete assessment database 7 comprises at least oneproject record corresponding to an athlete assessment project—being theoverall project of assessing a particular group of athletes for teamselection or other similar evaluation purposes. The at least one projectrecord would each contain project parameters related to a particularathlete assessment project, including details of assessment attributesto be captured in respect of athletes in the athlete assessment project.

In addition to at least one project record, the athlete assessmentdatabase also contains a plurality of athlete records, eachcorresponding to an athlete being assessed in an athlete assessmentproject. Each athlete record is linked to at least one project record (aathlete could be assed in more than one athlete assessment project andthe same athlete record could be used for all assessments of the sameathlete dependent upon the desire or design of the remainder of thesystem). Each athlete record contains athlete particulars correspondingto an athlete—name, age, weight other characteristics etc. as outlinedherein.

The athlete assessment database also contains a plurality of assessmentattribute records, each of which corresponds to a particular capturedassessment attribute of an athlete in an athlete assessment project.Each assessment attribute record is linked in the athlete assessmentdatabase to an athlete record and to at least one project record.

The athlete assessment database would typically be hosted on a databaseserver connected to a computer network in operative communication withat least one client device—the hardware architecture of the athleteassessment system of the present invention is outlined in further detailbelow.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart demonstrating the steps of a first embodiment ofthe athlete assessment method of the present invention. An athleteassessment database as outlined above, containing at least one projectrecord, a plurality of athlete records and capable of containing aplurality of assessment attribute records linked thereto is used. Thedetails of sample embodiments of the server, athlete assessment databaseand client devices are outlined in further detail below.

The first step in the athlete assessment method is to create or populatea project record in the athlete assessment database, containing thenecessary parameters to adminster an athlete assessment project. Thiswould include details of assessment attributes to be verified ormeasured, scales for measurement, details of evaluator methodology etc.Creation or verification of the project record corresponding to anathlete assessment project is shown at Step 3-1.

The next step in the method, shown at 3-2, would be the population ofthe athlete assessment database with athlete records containing athleteparticulars for each athlete to be assessed in the particular athleteassessment project. The athlete particulars 2 would be identifyinginformation of athletes to be evaluated in accordance with the remainderof the method. It could also be possible to capture objective assessmentattribute data and create related assessment attribute records for thoseobjective assessment attributes directly from the athlete and otherwiseat this stage, in advance of subjective assessment of the athletes—itwill be understood that the capture of objective assessment attribute oreven subjective assessment attribute data and the creation of relatedassessment attribute records could be done at any time in this stage ofthe athlete assessment method and all such approaches are contemplatedwithin the scope of the present invention. Both the project record andthe athlete records for a particular athlete assessment project couldphysically be created via an interface on client devices in poerativecommunication with the server, or by an alternate user interfaceoperatively connected to the athlete assessment database.

The server hosting the athlete assessment database would upon opening ofthe athlete assessment exercise or drills and the like, shown at Step3-4, serve an evaluator interface to at least one client device 10 fromthe server 6, by which each evaluator can enter each required subjectiveassessment attribute 4 with respect to a particular athlete and theirperformance into the client device 10, for subsequent transmission backto the server and storage in the athlete assessment database. Evaluatorscould be required to score each athlete on each necessary subjectiveassessment attribute, or in other embodiments, it could be possible forevaluators to optionally participate only in grading athletes on certainof the indicators required. Both such approaches are contemplated withinthe scope hereof. Serving this evaluator interface to the client devices10 of evaluators is shown at step 3-4, and the capture and subsequentstorage back to the athlete assessment database of assessment attributeinformation is shown at step 3-5.

At the closing of the assessment exercises for athletes, shown at step3-6, software on the server would create at least one ranked listing ofthe athletes based upon the information captured. No centralized manualdata entry, collation, normalization etc. would be required. This wouldrepresent a substantial enhancement over the current state-of-the-art.

Following the creation of at least one ranked listing of the athletesgraded in the athlete assessment project, the at least one rankedlisting could be displayed, printed or otherwise provided to a user viaa client device or otherwise.

Athlete Assessment Database:

The key physical aspect of the method which is required for its practiceis a central athlete assessment database 7 in which athlete particulars,athlete particulars and other related records pertaining to variousathletic assessment details related to athletes assessed within anathlete assessment project are stored. FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are schematicdrawings showing sample data structures of two embodiments of an athleteassessment database in accordance with the present invention.

The athlete assessment database 7, as shown in FIG. 4 contains a numberof subsets of data and information which would be used in the executionof the method or operation of the system of the present invention. Thereis shown a project dataset 27 which could include a plurality of projectrecords related to athlete assessment projects being administered orexecuted using the system of the present invention, an athlete datasubset 28, which would contain an athlete record in respect of eachathlete being assessed in an athlete assessment project, and aperformance attribute subset 29 which would contain the assessmentattribute values captured by evaluators and recorded in the system.

Shown is a project data subset 27 comprised of a plurality of projectrecords 38, each of which project records 38 would correspond to aparticular athlete assessment project. There is shown a projectidentifier or record key 39. Effectively project record 38 would containall of the high level project identifying information and otherparamters required for the remainder of the athlete assessment system tofacilitate eecution of an athlete assessment project—for example havelog in credentials provided to users, security being assignedappropriately at a project level etc., assessment attributes to betracked and parameters for same etc. In some embodiments there might beonly one project record 38—if the athlete assessment system was to beused only for the administration of a single athlete assessment project.In other embodiments including offering the service as a service bureauof sorts to multiple users, multiple athlete assessment projects to beadministered would require the creation of a corresponding plural numberof project records.

The next data subset stored within the assessment database 7 is anathlete data subset 28. The athlete data subset 28 would contain aplurality of athlete records 41—the athlete records 41 would eachcorrespond to an athlete who it was desired to assess within one or moreathlete assessment projects. As shown each athlete record 41 wouldcontain some type of an athlete identifier or a record key 42, athleteidentifying information 43 for reporting or interface purposes—forexample name, address, jersey number, or the like which could be used toidentify particular athletes on the drafting interface or the evaluatorinterface, or any other information 44 which was desired to be capturedfor reporting purposes or for the purpose of normalization or other dataprocessing of captured attribute values etc. It may also be the casethat the other information 44 which was stored with respect to aparticular athlete record 41 related to a set of security or a log incredentials if it was desired to any way provide athlete access to thecontents of the assessment database 7 corresponding to that athlete.

The final data subset shown in the database 7 of this Figure is aperformance attribute subset 29. There are shown a plurality ofassessment attribute records 45—each of which is linked to an athleterecord 41 and a project record 38. Each assessment attribute record 45could contain firstly a project ID 38 which would connect a capturedvalue to a particular athlete assessment project—as well as an attributeID 35 and an athlete ID 42. This would basically allow for thecross-referencing or a connection of the captured attribute value 47 toa particular athlete in respect of a particular attribute in aparticular athlete assessment project. Also, there could be an evaluatorID 46 or other information related to the actual evaluator capturing thevalue in the record. In this particular type of a design, there would bea separate assessment attribute record 45 in respect of each attributefor each evaluator who captured a number or value. In other approaches,where more than one evaluator captures a value for an assessmentattribute in respect of an athlete, those multiple values could bestored in the same assessment attribute record.

Various types of data structures could be used in an athlete assessmentdatabase 7 in accordance with the software and method of the presentinvention and these will be understood to those skilled in the art. Anytype of a data structure capable of storing the various athlete, projectand attribute data outlined herein which is required for the executionof the remainder of the system and the method of the present inventionin conjunction with the remainder of the software and hardwarecombination outlined herein will be within the scope hereof. The athleteassessment database 7 might be resident on the server 6 or mightalternatively be resident on or administered remotely within some typeof a server farm or database environment which was operatively connectedfor communication with the server 6. The athlete assessment database 7might also comprise multiple databases or files, rather than a singledata file or structure. The particular construction or data structure ofthe athlete assessment database 7 might also depend upon theinfrastructure design of the remainder of the athlete assessment systemof the present invention—again the various aspects of the athleteassessment system, its structure and the athlete assessment database 7including those which are infrastructure dependent will be understood tothose skilled in the art of relational database and client server systemdesign.

It is specifically contemplated that the athlete assessment database 7would most likely comprise a SQL database running on the necessarydatabase server platform. Other tools and development environments couldalso be used however.

The embodiment of FIG. 5 shows another approach to an athlete assessmentdatabase 7 containing two additional data subsets, outlined andreferenced in further detail below. These are an athlete assessmenttemplate subset 25 and a template attribute subset 26 which wouldcontain the details of various athletic assessment attributes which wereto be tested or recorded in respect of certain templates and projects.These additional subsets, as outlined elsewhere herein, are contemplatedas one type of data structure which would allow for the rapid deploymentand configuration of project records on the athlete assessment system ofthe present invention for particular types of athlete assessmentprojects etc. (i.e. there could be a template setup for use with hockey,soccer, baseball etc., or individual users might even in certaincircumstances through the remainder of the software of the athleteassessment system be able to configure and store their own “presets” ortemplates for particular types of athlete assessment project (ie. aparticular baseball league could store a template for their desired typeof assessment attributes and other project parameters for athleteassessment projects, for rapid deployment when a new athlete assessmentproject is desired.

The project template data subset 25 could store multiple templates forthe assessment of multiple types of athletes either in multiple leagues,multiple sports or the like. This type of a service bureau approach isconsidered to be the most commercially viable in terms of widespreadadoption of the athlete assessment system of the present invention.However, as outlined herein, rather than a service bureau approach,embodiments of the athlete assessment system of the present inventioncould also be built which contained only a single template for repeatedassessment using the same methodology every time and both suchapproaches are contemplated within the scope hereof.

As shown in FIG. 5, a project template dataset 25 would be comprised ofa plurality of project template records 30. Each of those projecttemplate records 30 would include a template ID or database key 31,along with other fields which could be used for the matching of thosetemplates with customers or uses—for example there is shown a sport ID32, where for example the system might contain multiple templates foruse in the assessment of athlete in multiple sports, and other variousselection info and fields could also be included as shown at 33.

To conduct an athlete assessment project, a template record 30 wouldneed to be associated with that athlete assessment project and thetemplate record 30 would in turn allow for the proper connection andlinkage of different attribute profiles etc. to the project and for useby the evaluators in the execution of that athlete assessment project.

The second data subset which is shown and which is useful from atemplate perspective is a template attribute subset 26. In certainembodiments the design of the athlete assessment database 7 wouldinclude 1 or more tables which related to particular athletic assessmentattributes which would be desired to be tracked in respect of athleteson particular types of projects or on particular templates andparticular sports. There is shown in this Figure a plurality ofattribute detail records 34, each of which includes as shown anattribute identifier or a record key 35 and at least 1 templateidentifier 31 which would link that particular template attribute to atleast 1 project template record 30. It is possible that a singletemplate attribute and its related attribute detail record 34 couldactually be connected to more than 1 template record 30 which wouldallow for use of the same type of attribute testing in more than 1template, for more than 1 sport or in more than 1 project. This will bean obvious modification to those skilled in the art of database design.

Similar to the embodiment of FIG. 4, also shown is a project data subset27 comprised of a plurality of project records 38, each of which projectrecords 38 would correspond to a particular athlete assessment project.There is shown a project identifier or record key 38, a templateidentifier 31 which could connect the project record to a particularproject template and its related project template record 30—for thepurpose of identifying the relevant template attributes and attributedetail records 34 for use in the rendering of input or output interfacesetc., and other various security or evaluator info etc. 40 could also bestored in that project or in the dataset related to that particularproject record 38. Effectively the project data and the project record38 would contain all of the high level aggregate project identifyinginformation which would be used to for example have log in credentialsprovided to users, security being assigned appropriately at a projectlevel etc.

The athlete data subset 28 would contain a plurality of athlete records41—the athlete records 41 would each correspond to an athlete who it wasdesired to assess within 1 or more projects. As shown in the Figure,each athlete record 41 would contain some type of an athlete identifieror a record key 42, athlete identifying information 43 for reporting orinterface purposes—for example name, address, jersey number, or the likewhich could be used to identify particular athletes on the userinterface at the system, or any other information 44 which was desiredto be captured for reporting purposes or for the purpose ofnormalization or other data processing of captured attribute values etc.

The final data subset shown in this Figure is a performance attributesubset 29. Each assessment attribute record 45 could contain firstly aproject ID 38 which would connect the eventual captured value to aparticular project—as well as an attribute ID 35 and an athlete ID 42.This would basically allow for the cross-referencing or a connection ofthe captured attribute value 47 to a particular athlete in respect forparticular assessment attribute in a particular athlete assessmentproject. In this particular type of a design, there would be a separateattribute value record 45 in respect of each attribute for eachevaluator who captured a number or value.

Also shown with respect to each attribute detail record 34 is anattribute type 36 which it is contemplated would be an indicator on thesystem of whether the particular attribute detail record 34 related toan objective assessment attribute or a subjective assessmentattribute—since objective assessment attributes as outlined in theremainder hereof would require only a single capture or entry on thesystem, whereas subjective assessment attributes would need to have avalue captured in respect thereof by each evaluator involved in theproject. Finally, other information related to the particular assessmentattribute being tested including for example labels which might be usedon drafting interface or evaluator interface screens and reports, thesubjective scale values which can be entered by an evaluator in anassessment etc. could all be stored, shown at 37—basically the attributedetail record 34 would contain all the necessary information for adynamic rendering of an interface or a report which would properlyidentify, capture or contain the value of the particular attribute inquestion for a particular type of template or project.

Illustrative Environment and System Architecture:

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing one embodiment of a systemarchitecture in accordance with the present invention, namely aclient/server method and apparatus for the streamlined gathering andconsumption of subjective assessment attribute information with respectto a plurality of athletes.

In this particular Figure, there is shown a server 6 which is involvedin the method of the present invention and which is operativelyconnected to a computer network 9. The server 6 either hosts or isoperatively connected on an internal network to an assessment softwareprogram 8 which is responsible for administering the interaction of theserver 6 with an athlete assessment database 7, and otherwisecoordinating the capture and creation of transactions and records in theathlete assessment database 7 and rendering reports or other dashboardsand visual output information from the athlete assessment database 7 andits contents following the completion of a series of athlete assessmentreviews.

Also shown in this Figure are a plurality of evaluator client devices10. The system 5 would typically include a client device 10 for eachindividual evaluator who was participating in the evaluation of athletesin a particular assessment project. Two evaluator client devices 10 areshown but there could be a varying number of client devices 10 basedupon the number of evaluators involved, anywhere from one through to ahigher number.

It is contemplated that the server 6 would be a Web server, and theclient devices 10 would contain a client web browser software which iscapable of receiving information transmitted from the server 6 anddisplaying that to a user, as well as for providing via the interfaceand input and output capabilities of the client device 10 the abilityfor an evaluator using that device 10 to enter and transmit back to theserver 6 captured values of subjective assessment attributes orobjective assessment attributes with respect to an athlete, for storagein the athlete assessment database 7.

Also shown is a coaching client device 11 that could be used followingthe capture of subjective assessment attribute data 4 via one or moreevaluator client devices 10 and storage of that information to theathlete assessment database 7, when the assessment window closes and itis desired to review the contents which were captured in the athleteassessment database 7 with respect to a particular athlete assessmentproject. Again if the server 6 was a Web server and the client devices10 or 11 contained client web browser software, the coaching clientdevice 11 could simply connect to the server 6 and have an outputinterface served to it. The server 6 could serve an evaluator interfaceand/or a drafting interface to client devices, in the case of anembodiment allowing for team drafting to users.

In operation of the athlete assessment system, the evaluators with theirclient devices 10 would be presented with an evaluator interface whichwas served to them from the server 6 by the connection of the clientdevices 10 to the computer network 9, which would allow for eachevaluator to enter subjective assessment attribute 4 scores orindicators in respect of a plurality of athletes for assessmentpurposes. Following the entry of such information via the evaluatorinterface on the client devices 10, those subjective assessmentattributes 4 in respect of individual athletes will be transmitted backto the server 6 for storage in the athlete assessment database 7 andeventual use in interface and reporting following the closure of theassessment window.

Service Bureau:

It is specifically contemplated that the athlete assessment method couldbe offered in a service bureau format, for the offering of athleteassessment IT assistance in accordance with the method of the presentinvention for use by multiple customers even in multiple sports at thesame time. A service bureau offering this type of service is the methodwhich is shown with respect to many of the embodiments demonstratedherein. It will also be understood that certain embodiments of themethod of the present invention may rather than as a service bureau berendered with only one or a small subset of the templates which would beused in a multi-sport service bureau embodiment, if a single server wasgoing to be configured for use with a single sport and even by a singlecustomer. Both such approaches are understood to be within the scope ofthe present invention.

Field Entry of Data Versus Centralized Input:

It is specifically contemplated that the actual capture of subjectiveassessment attribute information by evaluators in the field during theobservation of athletes performing assessment exercises would be doneremotely with wireless or remote client devices. It is also contemplatedhowever that in particular in the case of objective assessmentattributes, which only need to be entered once, that information couldbe loaded or pre□populated into the athlete assessment database 7 alongwith the remainder of the contents of the athlete records at the timethat those were set up in the system, so that that information did notneed to be entered in the field. Both such approaches again will beunderstood to be within the scope of the embodiments of the presentinvention which it is desired to protect herein.

Assessment Template Records:

Some embodiments of the athlete assessment system would contain aplurality of assessment template records each of which would correspondto a particular type of an athletic assessment routine which it wasdesired to apply to a plurality of athletes being assessed.

An assessment template record 30 would contain all the necessaryinformation for the athlete assessment system to render the evaluatorinterface for data entry by evaluators for the assessment of athletes ina particular athlete assessment project. By designing the system the waythat it deployed a series of assessment template records 30, multipletemplates could be provided and the set-up of a particular athleteassessment project could involve the selection of a template for theright sport, the right category of athletes etc.—in this way, the samesystem, server and method of the present invention could be used bymultiple evaluators in multiple athlete assessment projects to evaluateand assess athletes in multiple sports at multiple skill levels, all atthe same time, simply by selecting an assessment template record whichis linked or used to create the related project record for use in theevaluation and assessment of a particular group of athletes thatcorrespond to the sport and skill level etc., that was desired.

The key aspect of the assessment template record 30 and relatedunderlying template would be the inclusion therein of the necessary dataand program instructions to allow for the capture of the specificallydesirable assessment attributes in respect of a particular sport,particular group of athletes or a particular athlete assessment project.The embodiment of the athlete assessment database 7 which is shown inFIG. 5 shows one anticipated basic data structure which could be usedfor the development of the present invention in which the assessmenttemplate records 30 would in turn be connected to a plurality ofattribute records—such that the individual attributes that it might bedesirable to capture, either subjective or objective, could beconfigured in an attribute record and then attached to multiple projecttemplates—for example a particular measurement or a particularsubjective assessment attribute might be something that is used in manydifferent sports and at many different skill levels and by setting upthe attribute capture information properly that could be connected tomultiple templates for use.

The information stored in the assessment template record 30 with respectto each subjective athletic performance and attribute might include thedetails for the proper rendering of that information and the evaluatorinterface to evaluate and capture a subjective score with respect tothose attributes, as well as the scalar scoring mechanism to be used. Iffor example certain subjective assessment attributes are to be scored onscale of one to five, the details of the attribute to be scored as wellas the details required in the system to dynamically render or adjust afield selection tool to present the ability to an evaluator to scorethat particular subjective assessment attribute on a one to five scalecould be stored within the assessment template record 30 for use in theconfiguration or linking to a project record for a particular athleteassessment project. Various types of athletic assessment attributescould be stored within or in reltion to the assessment templaterecords—certain of the objective or subjective assessment attributescould be used for one sport could also be useful for another whileothers would vary between sports.

In addition to allowing for variance of assessment template records bysports, skill level, etc., the assessment template records andunderlying templates could also in certain cases be customized either bythe user or for the user, or by or for a category of athletics—forexample semi-professional or professional athletes might be graded on alarger number of attributes than a volunteer or community sports leaguewould, and by using different templates this could easily beaccommodated. It may even be the case that particular leagues or aparticular user may wish to fully customize the templates that they usefor their assessments in projects and this could also easily understoodto those skilled in the art of database programming and are understoodto be contemplated within the scope hereof.

Best Practice Assessment Approach:

One of the benefits of the system of the present invention is the factthat by building in a series of best practice oriented templates andassessment template records for the assessment of athletes in varioussports at various skill levels, best practice and standardizedassessment methodology could be used across larger portions of theindustry, even where customers or sports personnel would otherwise nothave the time, money or other resources to gain access to thismethodology. It is specifically contemplated that many customers wouldspecifically desire access to a centrally developed and centrallymanaged or maintained template set, as a means of always gaining accessto up-to-date best practices in their assessment routines in athleticassessment projects. Alternatively, as is described herein and as iseasily understood, those templates could all be customized on auser-by-user basis.

Server:

The method of the present invention will be implemented using aclient/server IT architecture and would rely upon a plurality of clientdevices 10 in the field which were capable of interacting with a server6 via a computer network 9. FIG. 7 is a schematic showing anillustrative embodiment of a server 6 in accordance with the presentinvention.

One or more servers 6 might be implemented in the method of the presentinvention—a single server or a server farm approach. The server orservers 6 will each comprise one or more processors 12 and memory 13.The memory 13 might contain various software components or processorinstructions for use in the method of the present invention or otherwisein the operation of the server 6 including operating system and thelike. Processor instructions corresponding to the athletic assessmentsoftware 8 are shown stored within the memory 13. The server 6 also inthis Figure shows a network interface 14 by which the server 6 couldconnect with the computer network 9 and communicate with client devices10 or 11. Various types of network interfaces can be understood to beused.

In addition to the general operating system instructions and othernecessary software, the server 6 would comprise an assessment softwareprogram 8 which would be responsible for execution of the method of thepresent invention at the server end, and the assessment software program8 may also act as the interface between the remainder of the software onthe server 6 and the athlete assessment database 7, or the server 6might alternatively include additional software to interface to theathlete assessment database 7 with which the athletic assessmentsoftware program 8 and its various subroutines could communicate.

The athlete assessment database 7 is shown in storage 15 within server 6in this Figure. Many different types of hardware and softwarearchitectures can be contemplated and will be understood by thoseskilled in the art of client/server system design—the athlete assessmentdatabase 7 might be resident on the server 6 or might be hosted onanother server operatively connected thereto.

The assessment software program 8 would comprise subroutines foradministering the athlete assessment database 7, creating and modifyingassessment attribute records and transactions in the athlete assessmentdatabase 7 in interaction with client devices of evaluators 10, as wellas executing searches, conforming the data stored within the athleteassessment database 7 and executing any reporting or output interfaceinstructions which were required against the athlete assessment database7. The details of the operation of the assessment software program 8mentioned and outlined in further detail elsewhere in this document.

Assessment Software Program:

Another key element is the assessment software program 8 resident on oraccessible to the server 6—the functions of the assessment softwareprogram 8 would include creation and administration of records in theathlete assessment database 7, interaction with the client devices 10 or11 via client software thereon, for the purpose of display ofinformation from the athlete assessment database 7 to users in the fieldas well as for the receipt of assessment attribute data or otherinformation uploaded from client devices 10 or 11 and their users to theathlete assessment database 7. It is also contemplated that there wouldbe a query and reporting interface either within the assessment softwareprogram 8, or accessible to the athlete assessment database 7. Each ofthese software modules could be freestanding software applications orsubroutines within the memory or storage of the server, or alternativelythey could each be functions in a consolidated software program and bothsuch approaches will be understood to be within the scope of thisapplication.

FIG. 8 shows the key components or subroutines which would be containedwithin the assessment software program 8. Overall the creation andadministration of records within the athlete assessment database 7 wouldbe conducted by a database administration module 50. The databaseadministration module 50 through at least five subroutines orsubstructures, would be responsible for the administration of records inthe various subsets 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 within the athlete assessmentdatabase 7. The database administration software module 50 could, inaddition to the possibility of being a purpose built softwareapplication, also comprise a layer of software instructions created foruse in association with a preexisting database tool.

A template record administration module 51 would be responsible for thecreation or administration of assessment template records 30 within theproject template subset 25. This module might also work in conjunctionwith other software modules for the purpose of querying or reportingfrom the athlete assessment database 7, or for the sake of structuringuser interface and interaction with the athlete assessment database 7and the remainder of the software of the athlete assessment system. Manydifferent types of database administration approaches will be understoodto those skilled in the art of database programming and all suchapproaches are contemplated within the scope hereof.

Similar to the template record administration module 51 it is alsocontemplated that there would be a attribute detail recordadministration module 52 in an embodiment as shown in FIG. 8,responsible for the creation or administration of attribute detailrecords 34. There would also be a project record administration module53 responsible for the creation or administration of project records 38within the athlete assessment database 7.

There would also be an athlete record administration module 54responsible for the creation or administration of athlete records 41within the athlete assessment database 7, and there would also bepotentially an assessment attribute record administration module 55responsible for the creating and administration of assessment attributerecords 45 within the athlete assessment database 7, in accordance withthe database structure outlined.

Either within the software modules or elsewhere in computer storageaccessible to the processor and memory of the server 6 are interactiveweb forms or other client software instructions or information whichmight be required for a field user with a client device 10 or 11 tointeract with the athlete assessment software 8 for the purpose ofupdating, creating or otherwise manipulating data in the database 7 viaan evaluator interface.

In addition to the overall database administration module 50, theprocessor instructions accessible to the server 6 in the assessmentsoftware program 8 would include a client interface module 56. Theclient interface module 56 might comprise necessary processorinstructions for the server 6 to interact with one or more clientdevices 10 via a computer network 9. The client interface module 56might effectively and primarily comprise a server to send and receivedata to and from the athlete assessment database 7 to the softwareresident on those client devices 10 or 11—the client interface module 56would be primarily responsible for serving and interacting withevaluators via the evaluator interface, or at least one teamadministrator via the drafting interface. In addition to processorinstructions, the client interface module 56 might also include webforms, media or other data which was required to engage and sustain acommunication session with a client device 10 or 11.

Also shown is an administration interface module 57. There wouldpotentially be the need for at least one administration interface eitherfor the purpose of querying data from the athlete assessment database 7,administering the athlete assessment database 7 or otherwise interactingeither with the athlete assessment database 7 or with the client devices10 or 11 during the delivery of the remainder of the method of thepresent invention. The administration interface module 57 might comprisea freestanding software client or client component which could be usedto interact with a user via a user interface of a client device 10 or 11or another computing device connected to the server 6. Theadministration interface module 57 might also be accessed directlythrough the user interface of the server 6 itself. Alternatively, theadministration user interface module 57 might again comprise thenecessary software instructions and data to accommodate the delivery ofan administration interface by a traditional client server browserinterface and both such approaches again are contemplated within thescope of the present invention.

Also shown is a reporting module 58. It is explicitly contemplated thatthe primary benefit of the athlete assessment method herein would be therapid and reasonably streamlined capture of athlete assessmentattributes and values from evaluators using client devices 10, and alsoby virtue of the fact that the assessment attribute values are storedand captured in an athlete assessment database 7 allow for a very rapidability to either run a program or on an ad hoc basis conduct queriesagainst the entire data set related to a particular athlete assessmentproject for the purpose of identifying athletes or particularattributes. The reporting module 58 might be custom programmed or mightalso comprise a reporting system which can be purchased and/or connectedor programmed in relation to the athlete assessment database 7. Thereporting module 58 would also potentially have the functionality builttherein to conduct any normalization of data captured to the athleteassessment database 7 or any other adjustment or ranking or calculationsbefore particular interfaces, dashboards or reports were driven orgenerated thereof.

One of the key benefits of the athlete assessment method is that sinceboth assessment template records as well as attribute detail records 30,34 were stored in the athlete assessment database 7 in some embodiments,adjustment of those templates and template details would allow forsimple customization or adjustment of the workflows to be used byevaluators in conducting athletic assessment in accordance with themethod of the present invention, either for custom client purposes or byadjustment for the overall best practices templates for use by multiplecustomers of the system and method of the present invention.

While we speak of the various components of the athlete assessmentsoftware 8 as freestanding or identifiable modules, it will also beunderstood that the various functions could be carried out by identifiedfunctions within a single consolidated application and both suchapproaches as well as any other design modifications which will beobvious to those skilled in the art of client/server programming, andother software development and database development and integrationtechniques, which do not depart from the overall concept of a softwarecomponent on the server 6 for the purpose of administering the methodand the storage of information to and from the database 7 are allcontemplated within the scope hereof.

Client Devices:

FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of one client device 10 inaccordance with the present invention. The client device 10 includes oneor more processors 16 and memory 17 within which multiple or variouscomputer processor instructions might be resident or stored for thepurpose of overall operation of that client device 10. It isspecifically contemplated in a circumstance where the server 6 is a webserver which will dynamically serve and receive content to and from abrowser software 18 installed upon one or more client devices 10 thatthe primary software interface installed on the client device 10 for usein association with the server 6 and the remainder of the presentinvention is a regular web browser software 18.

Also shown is a network interface 19 which would be in the case of thisparticular device shown a wireless internet or telecommunicationsinterface. Also shown are a plurality of input/output devices 20including a monitor/screen 21, and optionally a keyboard 22 or the like.

Certain embodiments of the method and system of the present inventionmight be developed for use of a proprietary or a closed client software18 resident on the client device 10, where interactions with the server6 were undertaken through a purpose built software interface. A purposebuilt application for installation into the memory of the client device10 which would use the components and the network interface 19 of theclient device 10 to connect and communicate with the server 6 and theremainder of the athlete assessment system for the purpose of sendingand receiving information to and from the athlete assessment database 7from the field. Either approach to the overall network architecturecontemplated for the present invention as well as the software to beused on the client device 10 is contemplated within the scope hereof.

Many different types of client devices 10 can be used in associationwith the present invention. As outlined, the key concept with respect tothe types of client devices 10 which can be used in the method of thepresent invention is that wireless devices could be used to allow forthe best streamlined field entry of athletic assessment attributescaptured by evaluators observing athletes, for communication and storagein the athlete assessment database 7 through the remainder of theathlete assessment system. Most desirably, the client devices 10 wouldbe non□purpose built hardware, using pre□existing communicationnetworks—such as tablets, smartphones or portable computers connected towireless data networks. Use of non□specific hardware in this fashionwould allow for the installation of additional software components forthe practice of the method of the present invention on pre□existinghardware and non□purpose built hardware. Any type of a computing devicewhich was capable of interaction with the remainder of the system of thepresent invention on the server 6, and the remainder of its associatedcomponents via the network 9 are contemplated within the score hereof.

There may be more than one type or category of client device 10 which isused in the overall practice of the method of the present invention. Ashas been discussed, there would be at least one client device 10 whichwould be used by at least one evaluator in the field to potentiallyenter assessment attribute information for storage to the athleteassessment database 7. There might also however be a separate clientdevice 11, as is shown in certain of the Figures herewith which would beeither the same or a different type of a device which could be used by acoach or other category of management personnel with respect to anathlete assessment project to actually view the ranked results ofathletic assessment. Most likely the client devices 10 and 11 would allcomprise tablets or some similar type of device and would all be thesame—and insofar as the delivery mechanism to the client devices 10 or11 was a web browser it could be somewhat device agnostic, but it willbe understood that different categories or types of devices could beused by each individual interacting with the system or the presentinvention and again all such approaches are contemplated within thescope of the present invention.

Client Device Software:

Insofar as the athlete assessment method of the present invention isbuilt around the ability of evaluators to remotely enter and store atleast subjective assessment attribute information into an athleteassessment database 7, the client devices 10 used by evaluators wouldneed to include a software program which is capable of interacting withthe remainder of the athlete assessment system. It is contemplated thatthis could take one of two approaches—either a free-standing andproprietary client software 18, capable of communicating via the network9 with a server 6 and the athlete assessment database 7 resident thereonalong with the assessment software program 8 on the server, oralternatively some other embodiments of the invention might use a clientserver approach, whereby the server 6 would be a web server with thenecessary authentication components to provide for secure orauthenticated communication between evaluators and the assessmentdatabase 7 using conventional client server or server and browsercommunications and data interface techniques. Either such approach iscontemplated within the scope of the present invention—the basicrequirements of the client software 18 would be the need to be able tointeract with the remainder of the software and hardware componentsresident on or connected to the client device 10 at the appropriate timeto read or capture data entry from an evaluator using that device, aswell as to provide for the ability to interact by way of data entryforms with the server 6 for the provision of assessment attribute datafor upload for saving to the athlete assessment database 7 in respect ofa particular athlete and athlete record. In certain cases the clientsoftware used by or accessible to the client device 10 would alsoprovide the ability to retrieve attribute or other information from theathlete assessment database 7 accessible to the server 6, by inquiringand transmitting query information for use in the extraction of suchinformation.

Where some embodiments of the client software and the remainder of theathlete assessment system provide the ability to do impromptu queryreporting from a client device 10, other iterations of the software 18in conjunction or coordination with the server 6 and the assessmentsoftware program 8 thereon would provide access to certain cannedqueries or reports which might be desirable for use in the ranking ofassessment of athletes. Those reports could either be called to theclient device 10 or 11 in a static fashion, or there could be apre□programmed query and reporting format available within the serverwhich could pull dynamic or live data from the athlete assessmentdatabase 7 for display in a pre□determined format based upon the mostup□to□date contents of the athlete assessment database 7 including allof the records therein corresponding to a particular athlete assessmentproject.

Evaluator Interface:

Various types of user interfaces could be provided for evaluators to usein the entry of assessment attributes and other information includingathlete identifiers and attribute values. for storage to the athleteassessment database 7 and for subsequent use in the remainder of themethod. The primary basis for interaction with a database system such asthis is the provision of one or more forms on the front end throughwhich a user can interact with the database, query up information and/orsend information for storage in the database—software components,queries or other layers of processor instructions are placed either atthe client or server end between the interface and the database tofacilitate the interaction with the user.

If the method of the present invention and the architecture of thesystem is deployed as a client server secure web site system then theuser interface, and particularly the evaluator interface, would becreated by one or more forms and windows which could provide forinteraction between the server and the client devices—alternatively in acase where free-standing client software was installed on the clientdevice 10 or 11, the client software could include the necessaryinstructions and other items required to interact with a user and allowdata entry, storage and capture, etc.

FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 show samples of data entry screens which could beused as an evaluator interface by evaluators seeking to captureassessment attribute values for storage to the athlete assessmentdatabase 7. FIG. 10 is a sample of a screenshot showing a userinterface. There is shown a client device 10 on which the screen displayshows an interactive client server web page with indications for the useof an evaluator to allow them to access different attribute entryscreens. This is one sample of an evaluator interface or functionthereof.

FIG. 11 shows a screen shot on a tablet computer in relation to theinitial menu shown in the embodiment of FIG. 10, in which assessmentattribute entry can be made and viewed in respect of an athlete. Thesewould be client server web pages connected from a client device 10 of anevaluator back to the server 6 and assessment software program 8 andathlete assessment database 7 for the purpose of entry and processing ofvarious assessment attribute information.

FIG. 12 through FIG. 16 show alternate embodiments of data entry screenswithin variations of the evaluator interface, which are shown todemonstrate how the evaluator could be allowed to select and enterinformation in respect to particular athletes to an athlete assessmentdatabase 7. These screens could be screens of a proprietary software orcould again be client server web page screens and both such approachesare contemplated. Referring for example to FIG. 12 there is shown anentry screen through which an evaluator could select access to one ormore athlete assessment projects and their related project records 38.Presumably by selecting one of the athlete assessment projects—indicatedby date and age group, the client device 10 would then synchronize withthe server 6 and the assessment software program 8 thereon for thepurpose of allowing access to the athlete records 41 related to theproject in question.

Referring to the next data entry screen, shown in FIG. 13, there isshown a data entry screen for particular assessment attributes of anathlete, in baseball. The assessment attributes shown on this particulardata entry screen are all subjective assessment attributes which it canbe seen are entered by entry of a number in a data field or by a slideron a visual scale. Any number of different types of user interfaceapproaches could be taken in this regard. Shown next in FIG. 14 is adropdown player information screen, in which certain athlete details orathletic assessment attributes, including gender and age, as well asteam positions, are shown. The data entry screens in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16show additional data entry options for the capture of various attributevalues to the athlete assessment database for use in the assessment ofathletes.

Output and Reporting Interface:

Similar to the evaluator interface which will be provided on a clientdevice 10 by which evaluators could enter assessment attribute valuesfor storage to the athlete assessment database 7, it will also beunderstood that various types of output or display interfaces arecontemplated. In some embodiments it may be desired to extract athleteassessment information and attribute values from the athlete assessmentdatabase 7, and through the athlete assessment system render one or morepaper reports for use by teams in the selection of athletes or teamrosters.

Alternatively, rather than a paper or static report, it will also beunderstood that an alternate embodiment of an output interface would beto provide a dynamic dashboard wherein on a client device 10 or 11,teams could dynamically interact with the captured information withrespect to athletes in a particular athlete assessment project whichwere stored in the athlete assessment database 7 and use the informationin that type of an interactive or dynamic way.

FIG. 17 shows one example of an output being either a visual report onthe screen of a device or a printed report, and more specifically is asummary sheet related to the captured subjective assessment attributesand objective assessment attributes in respect of a particular athlete.In this case, this report shows the scores of that player and comparesthem visually against group averages in the athlete assessment project,as well as demonstrating a ranking for each player in each heading ofassessment attributes. Any number of different types of displays orreports, as well as any number of different types of scoring ornormalization methodologies for application for the captured performanceattribute values are contemplated within the scope here.

Referring to FIG. 18 there is shown an alternative display ofinformation from a particular athlete assessment project—a series ofathletes are ranked and all of their relevant information in respect ofa particular metric or a particular position are displayed in thisparticular screenshot or printed report. Any type of a report with anytype of ranking or scoring based on the assessment attribute informationcaptured in the athlete assessment database is contemplated within thescope of the present invention. It will be understood that really thereare infinite options and possibilities in terms of the output andreporting interface and the output which is displayed to users either onpaper or in a visual screen format. The samples shown in FIG. 17 andFIG. 18 are only representative of some options and any number ofdifferent approaches could be undertaken and all are contemplated withinthe scope of the present invention.

Populating the Athlete Assessment Database:

In some cases the setup or configuration of a particular athleteassessment project would involve pre-population of the athleteassessment database 7 with the necessary basic project records andathlete records corresponding to a particular type or template ofassessment project, based on which the field entry of assessment datacould be streamlined. Pre-population of the database could take place inthe field or centrally at the back office. The population of the athleteassessment database for the purpose of the conduct of an athleteassessment project could be done using a software interface by which oneor more users could individually or simultaneously enter all thenecessary information in respect of the project and the athletes inquestion.

Referring to FIG. 19 there is shown a flowchart demonstrating the stepsof one embodiment of a business method or approach to populate theathlete assessment database 7 with the necessary records for the conductof an athlete assessment project in accordance with the remainder of theathlete assessment method. For the purpose of this flowchart, it will beassumed that there are a plurality of project templates defined in aseries of assessment template records 30 in an athlete assessmentdatabase 7 in accordance with that shown in FIG. 5. As well as aplurality of assessment template records 30, there could also be aplurality of attribute detail records 34, each of which was connected toone or more assessment template records 30. The connection between thesevarious tables in an athlete assessment database 7 would be understoodby those skilled in the art of relational database design.

In order to populate the athlete assessment database 7 for the conductof a new athlete assessment project, a project record 38 would becreated. The first thing that would be done in order to create a projectrecord 38 would be to capture a connection of the athlete assessmentproject in question to a particular assessment template record30—capture of a template ID 31, linking to a particular assessmenttemplate record 30, in addition to other information 40 includingevaluator information, security information or other items which mightbe defined in the template or elsewhere in the system would beunderstood to comprise this first data entry step. This is shown at step19-1.

Next at step 19-2 the project record 38 corresponding to the particularathlete assessment project being created would be created in the athleteassessment database 7. Likely a project ID 39 would be assigned to thatrecord or some other type of database key would be created in whichlinks could then be created from the project record 38 to other relatedentities in the athlete assessment database 7.

Following the creation of a project record 38, or at a different timealtogether, at least one athlete record 41 could then be created andconnected to the project record 38. To create an athlete record 41,which would have an athlete identifier 42 assigned thereto, a user wouldbe allowed via a user interface of a client device 10 to enter variousathlete identifying information 43 including name, age, gender etc. aswell as any other information 44 which might be relevant for the purposeof the practice of the remainder of the method, and this athleteidentifying information 43 and other information 44 would be storedwithin the athlete record 41 which was created. Entry of the athleteidentifying information 43 and other information is shown at Step19-3—this would be done via the user interface of at least one clientdevice operatively connected to the server. Following entry of thatinformation, the assessment software program 8 would through its variousprocessor instructions actually create the at least one athlete record41, shown at step 19-4 in this Figure.

Shown next in this diagram at stage 19-5 is the optional entry ofobjective assessment attribute values 47. It may be the case that thoseassessment attribute values that are objective and which can be enteredonce by a single user might be done centrally or in the back officerather than by evaluators in the field and so in this particularembodiment of the method of population of the athlete assessmentdatabase 7 in anticipation of the conduct of an athlete assessmentproject, the entry of objective assessment attribute values 47 is shown.The record structure which is shown in the performance attribute subset29 in FIG. 5, which is just one embodiment of the athlete assessmentdatabase 7, will again be understood to those skilled in the art ofrelational database design—each attribute value record 45 is shown tohave a link to a particular project record 38 via a project ID 39, aswell as to a particular attribute template or detail record 34 via anattribute ID 35. Those attribute values are also connected to aparticular athlete record 42 by the identifier therefore. The actualattribute value 47 is also shown.

It will be understood that many different approaches could be taken tothe capture or prepopulation of this information and all such approachesare contemplated herein. As well, the database 7 may not be prepopulatedfor the conduct of an athlete assessment project and the athleteassessment project records 38 and either related fields, values andconnectors in the database might all be created via the evaluatorinterface of one or more evaluator client devices 10 during thecompletion of the remainder of the method for the capture of subjectiveassessment attribute values. Both such approaches are contemplatedwithin the scope hereof.

Subjective Attribute Capture:

In the conduct of a particular athlete assessment project, the keyfunction which will be undertaken is the capture of subjectiveassessment attribute information to the athlete assessment database 7.As has been outlined in detail elsewhere herein, subjective athleticassessment by one or more evaluators, captured to the athlete assessmentdatabase 7 from remote client devices 10, allowing for the removal ofnecessary central processing steps post evaluation and assessment beforethe athletes can be considered or ranked for team selection purposes isthe key aspect of the present invention. As outlined above, the athleteassessment database 7 might be pre□populated with the necessaryinformation related to the particular assessment project by the creationof a project record 38 and/or plurality of athlete records 41 related tothe particular project in question, considering the embodiments of thesystem and database outlined herein. The key attribute information whichwill be captured in the field by evaluators, except in cases where theymight also enter some pre□population information, is the capture ofsubjective assessment attribute values. Objective assessment attributevalues might also be captured in the field using the same approach byone or more evaluators.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of a business methodoutlining the capture of assessment attribute values for storage to theathlete assessment database 7. Using a client device 10, an evaluatorwould access the system and the server 6 and the assessment softwareprogram 8 thereon, and select an athlete assessment project in respectof which they wish to enter assessment attribute information. In certaincases where only one project was available to certain evaluators, thisauthentication might take place automatically based upon login to theclient device 10, or in other cases it might be that multiple projectseven in multiple sports would be ongoing at the same time by individualevaluators and they could be presented with some type of a menu orinterface by which they could select the particular project in respectof which they wanted to enter information. This is shown at step 20□1.

The project record 38 related to a particular project would likely beassociated with a project template and attribute information and detailsin respect of which project would need to be captured. The selection ofa project for data entry, shown at 20□1, might then present to theevaluator a list of athletes related to athlete records 41 which areconnected to the related project record 38. The evaluator would selectan athlete to enter assessment attributes in respect of, shown at 20□2.The selection of an athlete could either be shown on a second dataselection or menu following the selection of the project, or couldalternatively be provided in conjunction with the following step wherethe actual attributes to be entered would be selected or made. Uponselection of an athlete to assess at 20□2, the evaluator would commenceviewing the athlete in their assessment exercises and/or wouldeventually have subjective assessment attributes for entry to the systemfor storage to the database 7. Shown at 20□3, the evaluator would selectvia the user interface of the client device 10 a particular assessmentattribute for entry, and then, shown at step 20□4, enter an attributevalue in respect of that performance by the athlete. If it was anobjective assessment attribute, the value could simply be entered, inother cases where there were subjective assessment attribute beingentered which were comparative and scaled in nature, the evaluator couldenter a comparative scale value or the like in respect of the athlete.Virtually any type of a scale or data entry approach could becontemplated here limited only by the flexibility of the backend datahandling software and technology.

Following the entry of an attribute value at 20□4, the client softwareon the client device 10 would transmit that captured attribute value tothe server 6 for storage to the athlete assessment database 7.Transmission of that attribute value is shown at step 20□5—thetransmission might either take place by way of a validated form entrythrough a client server webpage or the like, or if the client softwareon the client device 10 was a standalone or offline software it couldalso be the case that periodic transmission would take place back to theserver 6 to communicate the captured attribute values thereto.

On receipt of captured attribute values from one or more client devices10, the server 6 via the assessment software program 8 would create inthe athlete assessment database 7 one or more assessment attributerecords 45, capturing and correlating the attribute values captured bythe evaluator at the client device with the project. Many differenttypes of data structures or storage techniques are understood andcontemplated in this regard and all such approaches are contemplatedherein—the creation of the assessment attribute records 45 is shown atstep 20□6.

In certain cases, a project template record 30 or other related softwareon the system might include instructions for the conformity ortransformation of captured attribute values before the assessmentattribute records 45 were created.

It will be understood that this Figure and flowchart really only showsone possible very basic approach to the business method of capturingsubjective or objective assessment attribute values and data for storageto the athlete assessment database 7 in accordance with the remainder ofthe present invention. Any type of an approach which did not depart fromthe underlying business method is contemplated within the scope hereof.

Data Display:

The final general component of the software and method of the presentinvention is a method by which captured athletic assessment attributesfrom the athlete assessment database 7 can be displayed to one or moreusers, without the need for significant backend manual datatransposition processes and the like. Once the evaluator interface andclient devices 10 are used to capture assessment attribute informationin an athlete assessment project, by the creation of assessmentattribute records 45 in the athlete assessment database 7, which areconnected to athlete records 41 and/or a project record 38, theprovision of a reporting or query interface on the front end of thisathlete assessment database 7 to provide a dashboard or reporting ofresults contained therein, either during the execution of the project orfollowing the completion of subjective athletic assessment, will beunderstood to form a key component of the present invention and to beunderstood to those skilled in the art of database and data handlingstructures.

Referring to FIG. 21 there is a flow chart shown which includes thesteps of one method demonstrating the extraction and reporting of datafrom the athlete assessment database 7 that has otherwise been capturedin accordance with the method of the present invention. Typically,either during the conduct of an athlete assessment project or at itsconclusion when it is desired to view the subjective assessment resultsin relation to one or more athletes for the purpose of ranking andselection of athletes or teams, it will be desirable to use at least onereport or dashboard which would present the desirable information foruse by coaches or other users who would want to view this information.Using a client device, a user would log into or access a particularathlete assessment project in the database 7 likely by authenticatingthemselves from their device in relation to a particular project record38 in the athlete assessment database 7 and related data attachedthereto. This would be done via user interface on the client device 10or otherwise. This is show at step 21□1.

Following accessing the project record 38 through a login on the userinterface of a client device, the user would potentially be allowed toselect a desired report or dashboard format for the results that theywanted to view—for example the athlete assessment system may provideonly a single type of a report in respective of a particular assessmenttemplate record 30, or more likely there would be multiple types ofreports or dashboards built into the system, all of which will beaccessible to the user—these dashboards could be configured to displayselected attribute details and the like based on the remainder of theconfiguration of the system and could display information related to asingle athlete or to an entire group of athletes assessed in a project.Selection of the desired report or dashboard is shown at step 21□2—againit will be understood that this could be done in many different waysdependent upon the user interface of the remainder of the athleteassessment system.

Dependent upon the types of objective or subjective assessmentattributes which were required to use to construct the selected reportor dashboard, selected in step 21□2, the reporting module of theassessment software program 8 would extract the relevant data from theathlete assessment database 7. Execution of that extraction step isshown at step 21□3 in this flowchart. Data selection and query tools forthe purposes of generating database driven reporting and visualdashboards again are understood to those skilled in the art of databasedesign and user interface design and as such all such approaches whichmight be obvious to accomplish the goal which is to extract thenecessary captured objective and subjective assessment attributeinformation as well as other information pertaining to athletes orprojects from the database 7, as otherwise captured or maintained inaccordance with the remainder of the method outlined herein, will beunderstood to be within the scope hereof.

Following the data extraction step at 21□3, in some cases it may bedesired to conform the data, by normalizing, averaging or otherwiseapplying certain masks or calculations to the raw athlete basedattribute data contained within the athlete assessment database 7 forthe purpose of the selected attribute dashboard or reporting. Conformingthe data is shown at step 21□4—it will be understood that certainreports or dashboards might require different data conformationactivities to be undertaken or applied and those are again allcontemplated within the scope hereof. As well, certain reports ordashboards may display or contain raw data which is not conformed inwhich case this step would not be required.

Following the conforming of the data, shown at step 21□4, the selecteddesired report or dashboard would be displayed to the user via theirclient device—this is shown at step 21□5. It will also be understoodthat a dynamic or interactive reporting format could be developed orprovided where the user could actually sort, rank or otherwise act uponthe contents of that display and interact with the system in thatfashion as well.

Normalizing Data:

One of the things that could be done by the assessment software program8 and the remainder of the software resident on the server 6, in drivingan output or reporting interface to display to a user properlymanipulated or processed results captured in an assessment project inaccordance with the remainder of the present invention is the fact thatthe server and the software could easily be programmed to applynormalization techniques to data which was captured in circumstanceswhere for example multiple evaluators evaluated athletes in respect ofcertain subjective assessment attribute. In some types of manual scoringsystems the results are normalized by for example eliminating the topand the bottom score and averaging the others—there would be manydifferent types of statistical or mathematical approaches which could betaken and it would be understood that one of the benefits of the systemwith the present invention is the fact that various types of datatransformation or normalization operations can be conducted on the dataor on the results as they are manipulated for display in an outputinterface. All such approaches are gained or contemplated within thelarger scope of the present invention.

Drafting Interface:

Beyond the basic interface by which dashboards or reporting can beautomatically or rapidly generated off of the captured athleticassessment attributes stored within the database, it will be understoodthat there are added functions which can also be implemented as add-onsor extended functions. For example, it will be understood that adrafting interface could be created, based upon which multiple coachesor multiple teams could participate in a draft to build teams in asports league, based upon underlying athletic performance assessmentinformation gathered in accordance with the remainder of the presentinvention. Allocation of athletes within a particular dataset intoindividual teams in the league will be understood to those skilled inthe art of user interface and database programming and it is understoodthat the addition of a drafting interface to a database containing thetypes of athletic performance assessment and attribute informationoutlined elsewhere herein is explicitly contemplated within the contentand scope of the present invention.

In addition, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that byroutine modification the present invention can be optimized for use in awide range of conditions and application. It will also be obvious tothose of skill in the art that there are various ways and designs withwhich to produce the apparatus and methods of the present invention. Theillustrated embodiments are therefore not intended to limit the scope ofthe invention, but to provide examples of the apparatus and method toenable those of skill in the art to appreciate the inventive concept.Those skilled in the art will recognize that many more modificationsbesides those already described are possible without departing from theinventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, isnot to be restricted except in the scope of the appended claims.Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, allterms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistentwith the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising”should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps ina non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements,components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with otherelements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced.

What is claimed is:
 1. An athlete assessment method which uses anathlete assessment database hosted on a server operatively connected toa computer network, said athlete assessment database comprising: atleast one project record containing project parameters including detailsof assessment attributes to be captured in respect of athletes in anathlete assessment project; a plurality of athlete records, each athleterecord being linked to at least one project record and containingathlete particulars corresponding to an athlete; and a plurality ofassessment attribute records, each assessment attribute record beinglinked to at least one project record and to an athlete record andcontaining at least one captured assessment attribute of the relatedathlete with respect to the related athlete assessment project; saidmethod comprising, for a particular athlete assessment project: creatingand populating a project record with the project parameters of theathlete assessment project; creating and populating an athlete recordwith corresponding athlete particulars for each athlete in the athleteassessment project; during an assessment stage of the athlete assessmentproject, having at least one evaluator capture and transmit assessmentattributes for athletes to the athlete assessment database via anevaluator interface served to at least one client device from the serverover the computer network; storing the captured assessment attributes inassessment attribute records in the athlete assessment database, eachlinked to their respective athlete record and to the related projectrecord; and following conclusion of the assessment stage, displaying atleast one assessment attribute of all of the athletes associated withthe athlete assessment project to a user, based upon the assessmentattribute records for the athlete assessment project stored within theathlete assessment database.
 2. The athlete assessment method of claim 1wherein the displaying at least one assessment attribute of the athletesassociated with the athlete assessment project to a user comprisesgenerating at least one ranked listing of the athletes in the athleteassessment project based on the assessment attribute records stored inthe athlete assessment database in respect of the athlete assessmentproject.
 3. The athlete assessment method of claim 2 further comprisingdisplaying the at least one ranked listing of athletes to a user via adisplay interface.
 4. The athlete assessment method of claim 1 whereinthe athlete assessment database is stored on a server operativelyconnected to a computer network and in communication with the at leastone client device via said computer network.
 5. The athlete assessmentmethod of claim 1 wherein the at least one client device is a wirelessdevice capable of two-way communication with the server via the computernetwork.
 6. The athlete assessment method of claim 1 wherein the servercontains an assessment software program configured to execute thecapture, storage and display of athletic assessment attributes to theathlete assessment database from the client devices.
 7. The athleteassessment method of claim 1 wherein the at least one client devicecomprises an evaluator interface, being a user interface by whichathlete particulars from athlete records can be viewed and assessmentattributes can be entered for storage to the athlete assessmentdatabase, during the assessment stage.
 8. The athlete assessment methodof claim 7 wherein the evaluator interface provides viewing and entryaccess to the data of more than one athlete to an evaluator during theassessment stage.
 9. The athlete assessment method of claim 1 wherein atleast one assessment attribute to be tracked with respect to an athleteassessment project is a subjective assessment attribute.
 10. The athleteassessment method of claim 1 wherein at least one assessment attributeto be tracked with respect to an athlete assessment project is anobjective assessment attribute.
 11. The athlete assessment method ofclaim 1 wherein the number of project records is more than one.
 12. Theathlete assessment method of claim 11 wherein the evaluator interfaceallows a user to select the correct athlete assessment project andrelated dataset for viewing and data entry.
 13. The athlete assessmentmethod of claim 1 wherein the athlete particulars contain physicalidentification of an athlete, to ease identification of the athleteduring the assessment stage of the athlete assessment project.
 14. Theathlete assessment method of claim 13 wherein the physicalidentification of an athlete comprises a uniform number.
 15. The athleteassessment method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the athleteparticulars for athletes being assessed are displayed to the at leastone evaluator during the use of the evaluator interface.
 16. The athleteassessment method of claim 1 wherein the athlete assessment databasefurther comprises a plurality of assessment template records, eachcomprising the necessary project parameters to allow the systemizedselection and creation of project records in the athlete assessmentdatabase based upon preset system settings, wherein an operator couldrapidly and consistently create multiple project records for similarathlete assessment projects.
 17. The athlete assessment method of claim1 wherein the evaluator interface displays athlete particulars of aplurality of athlete records to the evaluator at the time of capture andentry of assessment attributes to assessment attribute records in theathlete assessment database.
 18. The athlete assessment method of claim1 further comprising a drafting stage of an athlete assessment project,wherein: the number of athletes assessed in an athlete assessmentproject is sufficient to populate a plurality of sports teams; followingconclusion of the assessment stage, displaying at least one assessmentattribute of all of the athletes associated with the athlete assessmentproject to a user comprises displaying assessment attribute records forthe athlete assessment project stored within the athlete assessmentdatabase to at least one coach for each of the sports teams; andproviding a drafting interface whereby athletes are assigned to thesports teams by selection by coaches, based on selections of athletes tothe teams by the coaches via the drafting interface served to at leastone client device by the server.
 19. An athlete assessment system forthe conduct of an athlete assessment method, said system comprising: anathlete assessment database comprising: at least one project recordcontain project parameters including details of assessment attributes tobe captured in respect of athletes in an athlete assessment project; aplurality of athlete records, each athlete record being linked to atleast one project record and contain athlete particulars correspondingto an athlete; and a plurality of assessment attribute records, eachassessment attribute record being linked to at least one project recordand to an athlete record and contain at least one captured assessmentattribute of the related athlete with respect to the related athleteassessment project; and a server connected to said athlete assessmentdatabase and to a computer network via which the server can communicatewith at least one client device; wherein the system can facilitate theexecution of the athlete assessment method by, for a particular athleteassessment project: creating and populating a project record with theproject parameters of the athlete assessment project within the athleteassessment database; creating and populating an athlete record withcorresponding athlete particulars for each athlete in the athleteassessment project in the athlete assessment database; during anassessment stage of the athlete assessment project: serving an evaluatorinterface to the client device of at least one evaluator to enable dataentry at the client device of assessment attributes for athletes; andreceiving transmissions of captured assessment attribute data from theclient devices of evaluators and creating assessment attribute recordswithin the athlete assessment database to store same, each assessmentattribute record linked to their respective athlete record and to therelated project record; following conclusion of the assessment stage,displaying at least one assessment attribute of all of the athletesassociated with the athlete assessment project to a user, based upon theassessment attribute records for the athlete assessment project storedwithin the athlete assessment database.
 20. The athlete assessmentsystem of claim 19 wherein the at least one client device is a wirelessdevice capable of communicating with the server via the computernetwork.
 21. The athlete assessment system of claim 19 wherein more thanone athlete assessment project can be administered simultaneously. 22.The athlete assessment system of claim 19 wherein the athlete assessmentdatabase further comprises a plurality of assessment template records,each comprising the necessary project parameters to allow the systemizedselection and creation of project records in the athlete assessmentdatabase based upon preset system settings, wherein an operator couldrapidly and consistently create multiple project records for similarathlete assessment projects.
 23. The athlete assessment system of claim19 wherein the evaluator interface displays athlete particulars of aplurality of athlete records to the evaluator at the time of capture andentry of assessment attributes to assessment attribute records in theathlete assessment database.
 24. The athlete assessment system of claim19 wherein at least one assessment attribute to be tracked with respectto an athlete assessment project is a subjective assessment attribute.25. The athlete assessment system of claim 19 wherein at least oneassessment attribute to be tracked with respect to an athlete assessmentproject is an objective assessment attribute.
 26. The athlete assessmentsystem of claim 19 wherein the method conducted thereby further includesa drafting stage of an athlete assessment project, wherein: the numberof athletes assessed in an athlete assessment project is sufficient topopulate a plurality of sports teams; follow conclusion of theassessment stage, displaying at least one assessment attribute of all ofthe athletes associated with the athlete assessment project to a usercomprises displaying assessment attribute records for the athleteassessment project stored within the athlete assessment database to atleast one coach for each of the sports teams; and provide a draftinginterface which is served to client devices whereby athletes areassigned to the sports teams by selection by coaches based on selectionsof athletes to the teams via the drafting interface.
 27. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium being an assessmentsoftware program, the computer-readable storage medium includinginstructions that when executed by a server operatively connected to acomputer network, enable the server to facilitate an athlete assessmentmethod by: administering an athlete assessment database operativelyconnected to the computer, said athlete assessment database comprising:at least one project record contain project parameters including detailsof assessment attributes to be captured in respect of athletes in anathlete assessment project; a plurality of athlete records, each athleterecord being linked to at least one project record and contain athleteparticulars corresponding to an athlete; and a plurality of assessmentattribute records, each assessment attribute record being linked to atleast one project record and to an athlete record and contain at leastone captured assessment attribute of the related athlete with respect tothe related athlete assessment project; for a particular athleteassessment project: creating and populating a project record with theproject parameters of the athlete assessment project based on userinput; creating and populating an athlete record with correspondingathlete particulars for each athlete in the athlete assessment project;during an assessment stage of the athlete assessment project, serving anevaluator interface to a client device of at least one evaluator viawhich said at least one evaluator can capture and transmit assessmentattributes for athletes to the athlete assessment database; storing thecaptured assessment attributes received from client devices toassessment attribute records in the athlete assessment database, eachlinked to their respective athlete record and to the related projectrecord; and following conclusion of the assessment stage, displaying atleast one assessment attribute of all of the athletes associated withthe athlete assessment project to at least one user, based upon theassessment attribute records for the athlete assessment project storedwithin the athlete assessment database.
 28. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 27 wherein the displaying at least oneassessment attribute of the athletes associated with the athleteassessment project to a user comprises generating at least one rankedlisting of the athletes in the athlete assessment project based on theassessment attribute records stored in the athlete assessment databasein respect of the athlete assessment project.
 29. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 28 wherein the instructions further configurethe computer to display the at least one ranked listing of athletes to auser via a display interface.
 30. The computer-readable storage mediumof claim 27 wherein the athlete assessment database further comprises aplurality of assessment template records, each comprising the necessaryproject parameters to allow the systemized selection and creation ofproject records in the athlete assessment database based upon presetsystem settings, wherein an operator could rapidly and consistentlycreate multiple project records for similar athlete assessment projects.